Almonds - January Position Report
The Almond Board of California has released the January Almond Position Report with shipments of +129 million pounds compared to last year at 115 million pounds for an increase of +12% over last year.
The increased shipments for January had been widely expected, as you will recall last year we were in the midst of the terrible port slowdown/strike in California which limited our January shipments last year.
SHIPMENTS for January:
- USA -15%
- Spain +109%
- Germany +81%
- India -43%
- China +35%
- United Arab Emirates -19%
YEAR TO DATE SHIPMENTS: Are at 836 million pounds compared to 918 million pounds last year for a decrease of 8.88%.
- USA -7.87%
- Spain +24%
- Germany -25%
- India -5%
- China -9%
- United Arab Emirates -53%
CROP RECEIPTS: Are now at 1.872 billion pounds compared to the crop estimate of 1.80 billion pounds..
CURRENCY: The dollar has weakened to 1 Euro equaling $1.13 dollars. The weaker dollar is assisting to stimulate demand for almonds.
MARKET: January proved to be an interesting month for the almond markets. Early January started off with prices weakening, followed by extremely robust demand from all markets for a two week period in which tremendous tonnage was confirmed and contracted. Then the past two weeks, we have witness demand ease in most markets and prices have eased again.
Net new sales for January were at 197,265,144 pounds. January was a very strong month for total new sales.
FEBRUARY SHIPMENTS: We expect February shipments to be stronger than last year. Keep in mind last year the port strikes/slowdown also affected the February shipments as well. Thus, shipments for February 2016 will be stronger than last year by 10-15%.
BLOOM: All eyes are on the Almond Bloom in California at this time. Weather has been ideal. January was cooler with excellent rains, providing great chill hours, snow pack, and wet soils for the trees. The almond buds are plump and ready to bloom within the next two weeks. We have started seeing some of the early varieties starting to flower. We expect the Nonpareils will be in full bloom within the next 7-9 days up and down the state. Weather is warm providing excellent hours for the bees to do their work in pollinating. The weather forecasters are calling for rain to take place next Thursday-Friday ( in one week) which will be when the Nonpareils are in full bloom. We will keep you advised on the bloom developments.